#oni con

But I rewatched the entire cartoon recently after watching the movie multiple times as well as reading the ongoing comics and fell down the rabbit hole into this fandom! I truly enjoy this show and I thank Jhonen Vasquez for making this beautiful disaster. So basically after getting into Invader Zim, I just had to cosplay the dork!!

The cosplay is a pretty straightforward closet cosplay using clothes I already had and the antennas were pipecleaners. The makeup was definitely the biggest challenge!! It takes me around 2 hours to complete all of Zim’s makeup. It’s the most time consuming, but most fun part of the cosplay!!! For my Zim cosplay, I wanted to go for a more high fashion Zim instead of just trying to make his long pink tunic.

I don’t typically care for accuracy when I do most of my cosplays, I just like for them to look cute, fashionable and I like to add something to it that’s unique and just give my own creative contribution to the character. I try to find certain focal points of the character that stand out to make the character recognizable to people as well.

For Zim, the focal points of the cosplay are the pink, sparkly ruffly top that emulates his pink striped tunic, the green glittery alien makeup and the antennae!! I also wear a black military-style coat just as a tiny reference to the fact that Zim comes from a militarized alien race and he’s a soldier/invader (albeit incompetent).

Photo; starfallonart

Cosplay has given me so many opportunities to grow creatively and meet so many amazing people and friends in the cosplay community, especially recently. I’m going into my tenth year in cosplaying and it still brings me so much joy!! I’m putting more focus on quality rather than quantity and putting more effort into the cosplays and characters that truly bring me joy to dress up as. It’s also let me grow creatively and allowed me to learn a lot of techniques in makeup, prop construction, costume design and overall taking as many creative liberties as I want!!

Prop construction and makeup are probably my favorite parts of cosplay creation. Sometimes I’ll sew but I definitely prefer buying a garment already with a good base to work with and then just modifying it to what I want it to look like to save time and money. It’s also let me realize is that there is no shame in buying your cosplays!! Cosplay is supposed to be fun! Buying your cosplays is completely valid!!

Oni-Con is a fun, small and intimate con. You’ll most likely run into the same people multiple times during the con which I think gives you a little more time to connect with other people and fellow cosplayers compared to big cons where you might want to meet and hang out with a lot of people but won’t be able to due to time and the sheer size of them.

My favorite part about Oni-Con is definitely the location!! Oni-Con takes place in the Convention Center in Galveston, TX which is right next to the beach so there’s ample opportunities for beautiful cosplay photos by the sea!!

https://linktr.ee/frostyoreos

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